Public housing complex gets a grocery store

It's not a Whole Foods or a Mariano's, but the tiny grocery store that opened Wednesday in a Ford Heights public housing complex looks like a mirage to people who have been living in a food desert for more than two decades.

"It takes me 30 minutes by bus to get to the nearest grocery store," said Gerell Jimerson, 30, a resident of Cook County's Vera Yates Homes, who volunteered his time to paint the door, shutters and interior of the store, while planting window boxes and cutting the grass outside. "It was something I wanted to do as a resident of the community because we're proud and happy to have this store open here."

Cook County Housing Authority executive director Rich Monochhio said the store is the first in the country to open inside a public housing project.

It will be operated by Crisp Fresh Market, a for-profit social service agency run by Catholic Charities. For the past year, the agency has operated three mobile units that deliver food, including fresh produce, to poor people with no easy access to grocery stores in Chicago and suburban Cook County.

The Ford Heights store, about 600 square feet, is the first operated by Crisp and will be staffed by the public housing residents, who will be paid $10.39 an hour.

Cook County sheriff's police — who have been patrolling the village since its police department, riddled by corruption for years, was disbanded a few years ago — will provide security for the store.

But Jimerson, who lives across the street, promised Cook County Housing Authority officials that he would keep an eye on it as well because it's so important to residents.

Mayor Charles Griffin told me the suburb has three liquor stores ("one calls itself a convenience store, but it primarily sells liquor and some food items on the side," he said) and a gas station but very little else in the way of businesses.

"I'm working to get the first TIF (tax increment financing district) in the history of the village," Griffin told me. "They created TIFs for economically depressed areas, but we've never had one. How is that possible? I don't know."

TIF districts are a widely used economic development tool in Chicago and its suburbs, even in upscale towns such as Orland Park and Palos Heights, and provide substantial tax breaks.

It's a sad reflection on how well-intended legislation ends up being misused or abused, while failing to help the very communities that need it most.

The Crisp grocery store, however, reflects the very best intentions of government and social service agencies to address the issues of the poor.

This is the sort of project that I've often referred to in this column when writing about making government programs work for people.

Tawana Burdon, 51, the first employee hired to work in the store, had a huge smile as she told anyone willing to listen how excited she is to have a place that will offer fresh vegetables and fruit along with items such as toothpaste, toilet paper and milk.

The report shows that the small, impoverished village of Ford Heights is at the very top with a 2014 tax rate of 38.4 percent for those...

The south suburbs again have the highest property tax rates in the Chicago area, according to a report released Thursday by Cook County Clerk David Orr's office.

The report shows that the small, impoverished village of Ford Heights is at the very top with a 2014 tax rate of 38.4 percent for those...

(Phil Kadner)

She began volunteering with Catholic Charities in the neighborhood two years ago and had been telling people how important a grocery store would be to elderly residents who can't walk to the bus stop during the winter, young mothers who have to take their babies with them to the store and the disabled.

"It's our store in our community," Burdon told me. "When you think of a community, it's things like this that bring people together. I'm going to do everything I can to make it a success and make sure it's run in a way that will make our community proud. I want to make sure this store stays open."

The store is actually located in a unit within the 100-unit public housing complex. When I walked inside, my first impression was of a food pantry, although I think the Orland Township Food Pantry actually has more space.

There's a wall full of coolers and a freezer stocked with various frozen dinners. The coolers contain fruit and vegetables and handwritten pieces of paper taped on the glass doors announced the prices: Zucchini, 4 for $1. Red Tomato, 50 cents. Iceberg salad, $1. 1 lb. bag of carrots, $1. 8 ozs., Mushrooms, $1. Red Delicious Apples, $1.50 for a 3 oz. bag.

Across a small aisle are shelves full of cereal, condiments, canned vegetables and preserves.

Jonathan Wittig, the director of Crisp Fresh Market, acknowledged that the store is small but said it's stocked with about 250 products (selected after getting feedback from public housing residents) compared with as many as 700 in a typical small grocery.

"But people only use about 50 to 100 products in their home," he said. "You may buy more things, but your basics are pretty much the same. Your favorite things. And that's the need we're trying to address."

He repeatedly stressed that Crisp is a for-profit agency under the umbrella of Catholic Charities and said that although profits have been slim in the past, the grocery delivery service has been making money.

"This is our first store, but we hope to add more in other communities that are food deserts down the line," Wittig said. "We will hire about three people to work in the store, all local residents.

"It will be open seven days a week, about five hours a day. We will be open from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday; noon to 7 p.m. on Tuesday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays."

People can order deliveries from the Crisp mobile vans online or by phone and deliveries are made from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

"We will walk up to the fourth floor of an apartment building, if we can gain access, to deliver food to someone who is disabled," Wittig said.

Cook County Board President Tony Preckwinkle was on hand for a ribbon-cutting to open the store, along with county Commissioner Deborah Sims, 5th District. Preckwinkle was later mobbed by TV reporters and camera crews who wanted to talk to her about plans to increase the county sales tax by one cent on the dollar.

Preckwinkle — first elected in 2010 on a pledge to roll back such a tax increase under her predecessor, Todd Stroger — said she had done her best to cut the budget, but the county's growing pension debt made the higher sales tax necessary. She said county commissioners would not get behind a property tax increase.

I doubt there's going to be much support for a sales tax hike to support pensions for county workers.

Yes, the county made a promise to those employees. And if there's not more revenue to make those pension payments, money will have to come from other county departments that help people in Cook County.

We've all seen that happening with the pension funding crises in Chicago and the state.

Still, I couldn't help thinking that many taxpayers, perhaps most, would be willing to pay an additional 1 percentage-point sales tax if they knew that money would be used for programs like the Crisp store, which actually help people and address a need.

Somehow, the conversations never focus on that but on the pension obligations.

"I'm looking for a job," said Jimerson, the housing authority resident who voluntarily painted the grocery store and spruced up the landscaping.

Food, housing, a job. After that, it's all sort of icing on the cake, isn't it?